The team from the Lithuanian capital had the doors opened to Euroleague after clinching the most important trophy of the season.
Zalgiris started the game better opening an eight-point lead at 25-17 after Mantas Kalnietis’ basket, but Lietuvos Rytas went on a 9-0 run to swing the game the other way as the scoreboard showed 26-25 in favour of the hosts.
The game see-sawed back and forth as the lead changed hands almost after every successful possession and neither team could establish a bigger advantage.
A tight affair continued into the third quarter as the sides were tightly put at 40-39 with Zalgiris holding a one-point lead. Lietuvos Rytas went on their second big spurt of the game blasting ahead 10-0 to gain the advantage at 49-40.
From this point on the home team didn’t look back and reached their record lead at 63-48 after Kenan Bajramovic sank both of his free-throws.
Zalgiris started fouling intentionally halfway through the fourth period, but didn’t gain much as Lietuvos Rytas confidently made one foul attempt after another.
Milko Bjelica was the star of the day with 24 points for Lietuvos Rytas after a very rough series for him personally. Kenan Bajramovic and Martynas Gecevicius scored 15 points each and seem like the most likely contenders for the MVP of the series. Igor Milosevic finished the game with 10 as Steponas Babrauskas added 9 points and 8 rebounds.
Zalgiris’ guard Aleksandar Capin paced his team with 15 points, Mantas Kalnietis scored 13 and Dainius Salenga had 9 in the game. Tadas Klimavicius and Travis Watson both scored 8 points each, with the latter also adding 9 rebounds.
Rimas Kutinaitis (head coach of Lietuvos Rytas): “I want to thank the fans of Vilnius. They were wonderful today and we used their support to take advantage of the home-court. I want to congratulate Zalgiris and wish they don’t get too upset. They played better this year than they did the year before, everything’s ahead for them. Someone had to win and I’m happy that we did.
The season was long and hard for us, but I feel good with the final victory we achieved. We retained the LKL champion’s title and also got a spot in Euroleague. It’s hard to tell whether there’s more joy inside me or disappointment that these kind of negative talks are spreading. We have been creating Lithuanian basketball for too long to just ruin everything with rumours like this.
We could play more freely last year, use more plays. We had more plays this year, but we couldn’t execute them well, so we chose to play with our old baggage, but with more quality. We fought harder in the second half. We lost Baynes early, we didn’t have Jomantas, so as a coach I’m happy that we won with 6-7 players. We proved that it’s possible to win a series with 7-8 players.
If Lietuvos Rytas wants to see me coaching next year, I’ll stay in Vilnius. I’m declaring this officially. I have never been in negotiations with Vladimir Romanov. I have not received an offer from him and will not even wait for it, because if Lietuvos Rytas’ management want to see me here, I’ll stay.
I’m happy with Kenan Bajramovic, who was our leaders despite some bad games. That’s how a foreigner should play. Talking about Lithuanians, Martynas Gecevicius has made a huge improvement. He was consistent throughout the season. He became a leader despite his age. Martynas is young talented and with a great future, he’ll be a great player for the National Team.
I know as much as you do about Brad Newley. The management never declare the
signings with the season still under way in order not to worsen the morale of
the current players. If Lietuvos Rytas do buy him, I’ll be very happy – he’s a
strong small forward with a good shot and athleticism. We lacked a player like
this in our team this year.”
